


Before We Are Lost

by Miss_Lovelin



Category: Final Space (Cartoon)
Genre: Child Death, Eye Injury, Fuck the Grand Surrender all my homies hate the Grand Surrender, Gen, Harp sweetheart I am so sorry, goddamn, harp deserved better, i write what i feel like when i feel like and i'll die that way, so here's a fic that makes things hurt more but at least she isn't hurting alone, stay safe everyone the forewarning is that the episode was fucked so the fics are as well
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 01:54:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28627605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Lovelin/pseuds/Miss_Lovelin
Summary: Harp and other surrendered children share their stories before they are lost for good.
Relationships: Ash Graven & Harp Graven, Harp Graven & OC(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	1. The End

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Final Space.

Harp had honestly thought she'd die right away. She felt the hot flaming breath of the snake god before her, its horrible gaping maw widening even more, her older sister fearfully screaming her name, begging them to let her go, for her to run. All she could do was freeze, hiding her face, looking away as if she would just awaken from this nightmare, safe in her bed at home. Her parents had betrayed her. She saw their faces as the guards ripped her away from them. They were smiling. They knew she would perish. Both of their daughters, to be killed. And they were happy. They made her sister watch.

Harp felt sick to her stomach after falling on hard, uneven ground. Uncovering her face and rubbing her head, it came as a shock that she was still alive. ...Was she? She stood up, shakily, wobbling on her feet. There was dim light from flaming lamps. It looked like the interior of a building, though veiny purple growths covered every inch of the stone walls and arches. It felt humid. Uncomfortably so. Was this the afterlife? Another dimension?

...Hell?

As her senses adjusted to this disturbing and unfamiliar world, Harp heard loud moaning behind her, and whirled around to see a gruesome sight.

Her people. So many people. Even some of their pets. Clothes tattered. Injured, Starved. Falling apart. Their eyes were all rolled back, though a few had lost their eyes. Their jaws hung open, and many were clearly missing bones. Their teeth and skin were rotting. Internal organs were showing.

Harp shrieks. The most horrifying part was that a few could still speak. They were begging her to kill them. Looking directly at her.

This was exactly what they had been chosen for.

The child began to yell, cry, kick and punch the walls until her toes and fists bled, shout for her parents- no, they wanted this to happen to you, stop-

...Shout for her sister. Did Werthrent take Ash?

She waited a few minutes, shaking. No sign of Ash. She could not see what was happening outside, nor hear anything. She waited a few minutes more, for nothing.

Ash had escaped, perhaps? Had she lashed out and Werthrent deemed her unworthy to be sacrificed? ...Did the guards kill her somehow?

No, Ashy was strong, Harp believed. She must have escaped.

...And left her behind.

Looking back at what used to be people behind her, she noticed a much older girl bearing a spear, stepping cautiously among the decay. Her clothes were ripped and beaten but not as much as the rest, her pale purplish-blue hair was tied back in a braid, and her eyes weren't rolled back, though they were bloodshot. A triangle was painted on her forehead, a square beneath her eye. When she looked to her left, Harp gasped.

She only had a right eye. The left side was a blank stretch of skin.

The gasp was not in fearful shock, but more of soft surprise. Ash only had one eye, too. This girl's eye was on the opposite side of Ash's, though. She would have loved to tell Ash she wasn't the only one...

The girl's single red-hued eye drifts to Harp, the mild annoyance in her face melting into concern. Harp shyly backs into the wall as the lady approached her slowly, silent. This woman was at least a foot taller than her parents.

"Hey, kid," the woman starts, getting on her knees, "...you must be new here."

Her voice was rough and a bit scratchy- a hint of some sort of accent, but calm. She was missing a few teeth and her ribs were poking out of her uniform.

Harp's throat was dry. She opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out. The lady wasn't fazed.

"This place is not very good at first impressions. I'm Mag. I've been here for a while. I know this place like the back of my hand. And I have a shelter, y'see. There are children here just like you, sacrificed to Werthrent. I can help you. Can you tell me your name?"

"...Harp," the child answers, quiet and hesitant, "Harp Graven."

"Hello, Harp! Magdelaina Auber... Auber..." She falters.

"Sweet Sentella, what this place can do to your memory. Magdelaina, at your service. How old are ya?"

"Seven. Tomorrow is my birthday."

"Ah," Mag's voice faltered a bit, clearly her heart was shattered by the thought of another little life lost to the beast before it even had the chance to truly live.

"I've been here since I was 16. I would be... about 21, now. Happy early birthday, for the record, sweetheart."

Harp's nose crinkled in disgust at the reminder of her mother's final word to her.

21? Mag looked much older than that... of course, Harp was a polite girl. She wouldn't say that out loud. Ashy, on the other hand...

"Thank you. Please don't call me sweetheart."

"Sorry. There's a lot of other children here. Force of habit. Won't you come with me?"

Mag held out her bony hand. There wasn't anywhere else to go, so Harp took it and began walking along with Mag, fearfully treading over bodies. Some followed her gaze, gasping for breath in a struggle to talk.

"What happened to these people?" Harp inquired. Mag didn't answer.

"Your hands are bleeding, kiddo, and there's some leaking through your boots, too," Mag exclaims, changing the subject (though she had a valid reason to, Harp reasoned). "We'll get you patched up, pronto."

The pair continued to walk through the 'building', Mag gently pushing away zombified people blocking their path and moaning at them. She looked pained as she did, and lifts up Harp and carries her instead when she was too afraid to touch a zombie in front of her.

Mag makes it to a large, loosened stone beneath one of the wooden pillars holding up a lamp, pushing it aside with one hand. Harp marvels at how strong she is, despite the feeble appearance.

Mag gestures for Harp to enter the cavity below, which she reluctantly does. Mag follows suit, pulling the stone back into place and effectively sealing the entrance behind her.

"We call this our 'secret base' of sorts," Mag chuckles halfheartedly.

Within the cavity was a small, dark room lit by a sad looking lamp that seemed to sputter with every shred of light it could muster out. It sat upon a makeshift stone table. Around that table sat six other children, each of them varying in decrepit appearances. The youngest of them had to be a few years younger than Harp, three or four, and was the only one that looked remotely healthy, with only a few stains on her clothes. She was probably 'new', too.

"Hello, everyone! I found a new member of our, er... little family," Mag announces. The six children smile weakly at Harp, who, with no context as to what is happening, nervously smiles and waves back.

"I know it hasn't been long since we lost our Jordan, but we can still honor his memory with all the future members we'll find," Mag begins. Harp can only react to that familiar name for a moment before the other children greet her.

"This is Harp," Mag introduces.

"Harp? As in, Harp Graven?" One of the children echo, their voice hoarse. An emaciated girl steps forward, barely recognizable. She wore her long, sea-green hair in pigtails. It used to be so silky and soft, and Harp distinctly remembered Ash, though a few years their senior, envied how pretty it was- but now it was a rat's nest, blackened by grime.

"It's me, Zora. From school. Do you remember?"

Harp gasps. She hadn't seen her classmate for a year since her "grand surrender". Their teachers had claimed they were so proud of her moving forward, that she was perfectly fine and the rest of the class should not fear and hope to follow in her footsteps...

This was not fine.

Harp takes Zora by the shoulders, gently shaking her.

"What's happened to you!?"

Zora gazes at Harp sadly, her half-lidded eyes drooping.

"You don't know yet?" she asks softly.

The sputtering light flickers upon the faces of all the children, the shadows playing across their sunken, skeletal features.

Mag sighs as she rips off a part of her sleeve to wrap the fabric around Harp's wounds.

"I haven't told her, I just found her! Sweet Sentella," she mumbles again, "I don't like doing this... I'm sorry, kid. I need to ask you to calm down as you listen to the truth."

Harp figured what was happening- to the people outside and her peers in the room.

She knew she'd die, but they promised it would bear no pain.

There was no embrace. No eternity of joy. Those were lies from cowards that would offer up the lives of their own loved ones to a monster.

She had her suspicions, but she would never imagine it being so very slow.

"So, here's the deal," Mag begins, her tone low and sullen, "we are all trapped inside of Werthrent, the fire serpent. We were always taught, as children that he was most benevolent. But that's a lie. It always was a fat, heaping turd of a lie.

"Time does not exist here. None of you can biologically age. I've been keeping track of time and all, but technically, here, you'll never be able to grow up properly. You do not have to eat or drink, either. What Werthrent does, is drain us of everything we have. It is slow. It is agonizing.

"Imagine a toothpaste tube," Mag suggests, "how much you can get out when it is new. But using it for a prolonged period of time, it becomes harder and harder to squeeze out any more, and the tube becomes flat because you've used up so much of its contents. That's what Werthrent does with our health. He feeds off of us like a parasite until we have nothing left to give.

"The people you saw outside are only zombies now. Most of them were adults that willingly sacrificed themselves in the belief that they would be rewarded. I would try to help them, but they're long gone. Besides, adults have a tendency to be so brainwashed by their ideals that they wouldn't have listened to me even if they were well."

"I don't think Werthrent is aware of our secret base. I have noticed that the process of draining is much slower in here than it is outside. You'll be safe here. It's our only option, unfortunately. I'm sorry it's getting cramped. But I feel all too obligated to give every child I find a fighting chance. Maybe one of you will find a way out.

"...There is a small glowing object inside of Werthrent's heart. I can't really tell what it is, but I have reason to believe that is his life source. It holds everything together. It could be what is draining us, and everyone else out there. But it's guarded by a crazy old man. Ol' Septim has been trapped here the longest, as far as I know, but he can still speak in full sentences and everything. I suppose Werthrent 'spared' him because he needs someone to guard his heart. It's his weak spot. But I reckon Septim is suffering the most..."

Mag blinks.

"I digress. Harp, that's what you need to know."

"I...-" Harp starts to sob, choking back vomit from thinking about how gruesome her final fate was going to be.

"Ashy..."

"Oh," Zora rests a hand on Harp's shoulder, "that's right... where is your sister...? Siblings are usually surrendered together," she gestures to a boy and a girl across the table, identical twins, holding each other as if they were their own security.

"She was with me... Mom and Dad made her watch when I was surrendered... she was calling my name."

Harp punches the fleshy pulsing wall of the cavity, tears flowing.

"But she never came with me here. I waited and waited. She left me behind. She's gone."

"Harp..." Mag slowly steps forward towards the child, arms open.

Harp tries to push her away at first, but Mag overpowers her, hugging her tightly.

"Think of it this way, kid," Mag says gently, "if she escaped, your sister is never, ever gonna let you be forgotten in here. And," she adds, a pleasant lilt in her voice, "you can think of us as your new family."

Harp wipes her nose on her sleeve.

"I know this is unfamiliar, and I know you're hurt. But you'll have a legacy out there. Your sister could change the future because of you.

"Now... you've met Zora before, yes? These twins are Niko and Rosaline, this boy is Gabriel, our (second) oldest, this one... we just call them Snake. They won't tell us their real name. And this, our littlest one, is Lyre. She arrived a few days before you."

Harp looks at Lyre with a softer expression, knowing what would happen to her, still just a toddler- and with a name (musically) similar to her own, to boot.

Lyre smiles back at her innocently, pointing.

"Purble," she exclaims, eyeing Harp's short, sloppily self-cut lavender hair.

Harp feels slightly self conscious now, her face flushing a deeper blue, but chuckles lightly, picking up the baby and sitting down in her place. It made her forget what horrible things she'd just heard, if just for a moment.

"I get to be the big sister now, huh?"


	2. Zora

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Final Space.
> 
> CW for major eye and body horror and injury in this one.

According to Mag, a week had passed since Harp arrived to the Chamber of the Surrendered. Only Mag ever left the secret base to search for new arrivals, further deteriorating herself with every visit to the main chamber, and the children remained in the cramped cavity.

"How many people can it possibly send here? There had to be an entire village's worth when I landed here," Harp exclaims. Her face and clothes were dirtier by now, smudged with tears and dust, and her hair was a mess much like the rest of the children's.

"Werthrent will eat anyone who comes to the temple," Zora explains to Harp, cradling an inconsolable Lyre in her arms.

"Even the sick and the injured can be... disposed of. But he will actively choose children to be brought before him. Most specifically, healthy ones." Zora winces at the toddler's cries. Her body was weak and fragile. She couldn't handle the baby for much longer.

"Please, won't you take Lyre? She seems to like you the most..."

Harp shudders at Zora's prior words, hugging Lyre close. She glances up at the large stone blocking the sole entrance and exit to the base, silently praying to some benevolent power out there that would return Mag safely. Lyre calms down considerably, getting a short-lived smile from the older girls.

"I need to get out!"

The baleful shout awoke Niko and Rosaline and surprised Gabriel, disrupting his meditative state.

Snake was bawling, jumping at the exit stone and clinging to the pulsing guts surrounding the cavity tightly, managing to shove the boulder partially out of the way in an attempt to climb out, letting in a shred of eerie light from the chamber above.

"I can't take it anymore. I can't! I can't!"

The other children rushed to pull them away from the wall, Zora being the first to reach them, grabbing at their torn boot.

"Snake! You can't leave! You'll be-"

Zora was knocked back by a harsh kick directly to the face as a sobbing Snake crawls out of the pit and into the chamber above, accompanied by the unified gasps from the remaining five. Mag's footsteps echoed above them as she lifted up Snake to bring them back into the base. Lowering her head to look inside, she seems out of breath.

"What happened!?"

"I... I'm okay. It didn't hurt, I'm... it feels numb, actually..." Zora slowly gets up onto her feet, holding onto Harp's and Gabriel's hands as they help lift her. When she brushes her unruly hair out of her face, she is met by terrified, silent stares.

"Wh... What's wrong? Is there a mark?"

Mag snaps out of her stupor as Snake starts to cry even harder. Dropping back into the pit with the child and abruptly dropping them back onto the ground, she approaches Zora. In her panic, she steps on something squishy that promptly explodes into a mess of green blood and gore under her boot.

"Oh no."

The other children look at Mag in a unanimous mixture of incredulous horror. Zora only looks confused and tired.

"It's hard to see... my face feels wet..."

She presses a hand to her right cheek as it oozes with blood, raising it up to the gaping role where her right eyeball used to be.

And she screams.

Everyone else also screams.

And then she blacked out.

Zora awoke feeling groggy and disoriented, seeming to forget where she was, where she'd spent a year in hiding, but still rotting. It felt like she'd been out for days.

She remembered... voices. One of her eyes wouldn't open. A familiar voice from a long time back calling her name. Crying. An androgynous sounding voice apologizing profusely.

As she stood up, knees clattering, wobbling and tripping over her own tattered gown in a feeble attempt to accommodate for her missing eye and frail body, she felt her face for the former, only to find a patch of fabric wrapped tightly around that side of her head.

"Zora?"

Zora felt someone gently take her hand, and whirls around to see a girl with short lavender hair, her pink eyes pooling with tears.

"You're awake. We thought we'd lost you."

The tiny room was dark, save for the pulsing veins around them, lit with blood eerily aglow with flames, fitting for the fire serpent they were trapped in.

"Harp," Zora breathes.

"It's been about four days," Harp explains, both hands clinging to Zora's, "and right now, if we were outside, it's supposed to be nighttime. Everyone else is sleeping."

The pigtailed girl nods solemnly. Reaching up with her free hand, she pushes the exit stone out of its' place, using Harp as a boost before making her escape.

"Ow-! Hey!" Harp attempts to stay quiet, but is fearful of her friend's sudden behavior, especially after her accident. She quickly clambers out after Zora, who she sees wandering close to the staircase leading to Werthrent's beating heart.

Mag was correct; there was something glowing a deep magenta inside of the heart. The pattern looked like... her tattoo. Everyone on Serepentis was branded with that mark at birth.

Harp lifts up the sleeve on her left arm to compare. It was the very same.

Everyone on Serepentis, she guessed, was to be raised for this. To essentially be cattle. It took all of her strength to keep from throwing up, but she couldn't keep it back. She vomited into her hand to find it now covered in dark green blood. Still, she pursues Zora, who is gazing at the heart, too. Standing still. Her sleeve was also rolled up, bearing an identical tattoo in the same place- just below her left shoulder.

"Zora, we'll be drained faster up here!"

Zora whirls back to face her, her single blue eye watering.

"What is the point? We... we'll all die. Why prolong the inevitable?"

Harp watches as she sits down on the bottom step of the staircase. Feeling there was no use arguing as Zora was ultimately correct, she sits beside her.

"The word 'zora' means 'sky' in Ancient Serepentian," Zora muses.

"My parents named me that because of my eyes... but I've forgotten what the sky looks like." She touches the fabric that covered her empty eye socket.

"Where did your name come from, Harp?"

Harp looks down at her lap.

"When I was born, Ashy said my very first cries sounded like music. So Mom and Dad named me Harp."

"And Ash?" Zora doesn't look at Harp.

"...I don't really know. But..." Harp glares up at the pulsing, flaming heart, Zora following her gaze. Their eyes slowly moved to the zombies surrounding them. Zora watches one that is also missing an eye wistfully.

"Maybe they named her 'Ash' because that's what they thought she'd end up being. A pile of ash. In here."

Zora blinks.

"Awfully morbid choice, Mr. and Mrs. Graven."

"I'm sorry this happened, Zora. To you. To everyone in the base and up here. To everyone that ever has been in here."

"You are not responsible for this, Harp. Werthrent is to blame for everything. And the parents that feed us lies to feed us to him eventually."

"..."

Zora rests a hand on Harp's shoulder.

"I want you to know. I didn't know I'd be Surrendered until the moment I was.

"My family was one of the wealthiest on Serepentis. I was given everything I could possibly want."

Harp knew that, though. In school, Zora was often called a princess. Ash often babbled about how jealous she was of what Zora had, including the fact that she'd been Surrendered prior to her and Harp.

"My mummy and daddy loved me. At least. I thought they did.

"When our shop in the marketplace was losing business, we were losing money. Mummy and Daddy said they had a surprise for me, something so special they would lead me to it. They treated it like it was a gift. They blindfolded me and guided me to the temple. I didn't notice when they passed me off to the guards, and we walked up the steps together...

"They removed the blindfold and I was standing before Werthrent's jaws. I screamed. I turned around and I tried to run back down to Mummy and Daddy on the pathway. When I looked back I saw them smiling for an instant as I was caught in the flames and eaten. The next thing I knew, I was here. They got rid of me... and I don't know if it was because they believed this would be better for me, or they stopped loving me when there wasn't enough money for the three of us to get by."

Harp listened with her eyes wide.

"Zora, I'm sorry..."

She remembered something important. Perhaps only to her.

A gift she forgot she'd held on to.

Out of Harp's pocket came a pastel pink eyepatch, decorated with a red heart shaped emblem with a yellow sparkly star inside of that.

"Where did you get that?" Zora asks.

"Ashy's and my birthdays are one day apart. I just remembered that I bought some materials from the market and made this for her so she'd have more confidence and finally stop covering half of her face with her hair. ...I was going to give it to her after our Surrendering ceremony. But I feel like you might like it more."

Zora reels back slightly in realization, immediately recalling Harp's older sister was the only other naturally one-eyed girl she knew before Mag.

"I mustn't! That's a gift for your sister!"

"It's okay. I'll never see Ashy again. She's gone. But I still have you."

Zora blushes furiously at that remark.

"Here," Harp starts, unfurling the ratty fabric around Zora's head. The headache-inducing pressure was lifted instantaneously, and she instinctively lifts up a hand to feel at her empty socket before Harp pushes it away to put on the eyepatch, which felt far better than the cloth that was there before.

"Better?" Harp asks.

Zora was still blushing, her entire face flushed dark blue.

"Mm-hm..."

"Good!" Harp smiles. "Now you look like a pretty pirate!"

They laugh a little, a bizarre sound among the moans and sobs of the zombies.

"Harp," Zora whispers, "thank you."

Now Harp's face flushes.

"You're welcome."

"Your sister would have loved it."

Harp beams a little brighter.

"Do you love it?"

Zora smiles back.

"I do. I don't think... I'll ever take it off."

They lean against each other on the staircase quietly for a moment, arms around the other's shoulder.

"Harp?"

"Yeah?"

"We'll never be able to grow up in here, so I must do this now."

Zora kisses Harp on the cheek.

"I can cross that off my bucket list. Come, we need to get back to the secret base."

Harp is understandably stunned for a good minute before finally standing back up. Zora takes her by the hand and almost drags her back to the opening beneath the stone. As they crawl back into the cavity, the girls curl up on the ground in the dark among the other children, smiling mischievously at each other.

"Harp?"

"...Yeah?"

"Can you... describe the sky to me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you SO MUCH for reading! This may be the only semi-peaceful chapter there is. (I'm sorry.)


	3. Lyre

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah this is late. I found a new thing to hyperfixate on but damn that trailer huh

After the incident regarding Zora, Mag paid much of her attention to her. Clearly she was afraid of losing another child. How many had she already lost to this cycle?

"Jordan died from curiosity," Rosaline explains to Harp, her voice slightly quavering with dread. They sat against the pulsing walls of the secret base. Their clothes became damp, but in the end, it would never matter.

"He went up to the heart of Werthrent. And he tried to touch the shiny thing that was inside. Septim tried to stop him, but... Werthrent did first."

Harp didn't want to ask for any more details regarding what happened.

"...is this, um... Jordan Hammerstein?"

Rosaline blinks.

"You knew him?"

"My sister had a crush on him. She planned out many attempts to ask him to prom, but he never even looked at her once. She worked all day to make herself look beautiful for the prom and caught everyone's eye on the dance floor, except for him. She overheard him insulting her about her one eye, and she ran home crying."

The other girl goes silent in contemplative thought. Her long bright orange hair, though dulled by grime, still shone in the dim lights of the cavity. Along with her twin brother's, whose hair was more red. Harp forgot names sometimes. She called them the Twin Flames.

"He was... not very talkative. He never spoke about that. Maybe he felt guilty. Mag only has one eye, too."

"He better have," Harp mutters, more to herself than anyone else. Though after the prom fiasco, Harp worked all night to give Ash a new "prom" party- just the two of them having fun in the decorated backyard and poorly-made-but-at-least-attempted snacks on the tables she brought out. They could wear dresses- and then ruin them. Screw prom, and screw Jordan Hammerstein. Ash probably would have a very mixed reaction, had she known he died.

Rosaline glances away, seeming nervous.

"So... where do you think your sister might be right now?"

"I don't know," Harp replies, a pang in her heart. She holds her hands up to her chest, remembering how the temple guards ripped her away from her family, a terrified Ash calling her name and reaching out to her, struggling as their parents held her back.

"I like to think she got rescued. That she's nice and safe somewhere. I always wanted to go to space. Maybe she's still out there, and she found someone new... a new family that loves her and won't hurt her..."

Harp chokes up on her words. Rosaline, unsure how to handle the tension, inches away, looking around for Mag to deal with this. She whisper-shouts to her brother.

"Niko, go get Maggie. Harp is going to cry."

"I'm still here... Maybe she forgot about me. But if she could be happy... I'm happy! I can't be selfish, I can't wish she was here in this horrible place with me, or just assume... and I'll just... I'll just rot in here, just like Mom and Dad wanted me to do! All alone!"

"Not awone," a squeaky voice interrupts. Harp looks up. Rosaline has left.

Lyre smiles at Harp, toddling over to her, resting her head on Harp's knees. Her wispy pastel pink hair curls and floats around her head like a halo, her wide green eyes reflected innocence. A dusting of tiny red speckles dotted the bridge of her nose and cheeks. No child deserved to be here, especially not one this small.

"Hawp not awone. Nevew awone. No cwyin'."

Lyre holds Harp's face with tiny hands, giggling. Harp relished the coolness of the feeling, holding the baby's arm with one hand and resting her other one on Lyre's downy little head.

"...How old are you again, Lyre?"

Lyre holds up three fingers, and almost on cue, Harp sheds another tear.

"Okay, little sister. You're just three, huh?"

Lyre happily nods and Harp stands up, lifting her up too.

"Just thwee," Lyre echoes, either in confirmation or just mimicking- she liked to repeat things, over and over and over. Mag would often call her a little mockingbird.

It hit harder when Lyre said it herself. Harp couldn't imagine what happened to everyone in the chamber above happening to sweet little Lyre, too young and too innocent to realize her fate. It hurt too much.

All she knew was that Lyre was sent here not long before her. If she'd known, she would have prevented it.

"...Thank you, Lyre."

Mag approaches them with Zora in tow.

"Is everything okay? I'm sorry, Snake was feeling down, too, but now that Zora's up, I could get them to talk, and-"

"We're okay," Harp answers, her tone melancholic.

"We okay," Lyre chirps, resting her head against Harp's chest.

Mag gives Harp a skeptical look, but smiles at Lyre.

"I think you're Lyre's new best friend, eh?"

"Big sister," Harp corrects her.

"Bih sistew," the toddler repeats.

Mag laughs warmly.

"Okay, big sister Harp and little sister Miss Mockingbird. A musical duo. I like it."

Zora sits next to Harp, prompting Harp to sit back down again, Lyre staying in her lap. The two older girls smile at each other, slightly blushing.

'How did Lyre get here, anyway?" Harp asks.

The smiling faces around her fall. Mag clears her throat.

"We don't know. She's too young to really explain it clearly herself. She doesn't seem to care about being separated from her parents at all- only that she hates the humidity in here."

"Too hot," Lyre comments, dramatically wiggling around, rolling up her sleeves and kicking off her boots.

"Can't blame you, sweetie," Mag ruffles her fluffy hair, which clearly annoys her. She reaches up to fix it.

Harp laughs halfheartedly. Rosaline and Niko have returned, sitting at either side of Mag. Snake squirms in between Mag and Niko, and Gabriel is just watching some distance away, his expression hard to read. Harp meets his gaze for a moment but quickly averts her eyes, looking back down at Lyre, who yawns.

"Maybe some secrets are better left hidden. Is it time for you to go to bed?"

Lyre laid down in a cooler spot in the cavity where it was dark, resting her head on Mag's lap like a pillow.

"Zowa sing," she demands.

"Want Zowa song."

Zora steps forward, holding Lyre's hand.

"My lullaby?" she answers, voice low.

"Yes. Of course."

Mag gives Zora a sweet smiile, like she'd done this many times before Harp's arrival. It reminded Harp of her mother somewhat, when she would stand at the windows facing outside of their little hut, watching her and Ash play and sit at the edge of the boardwalks, dipping their tiny toes in the bayou waters.

And Zora sings.

"As sure as the moon rises over the sea,

As certain as the sun shines on morning dew,

Even in the end, when the stars fade and fall,

I promise my heart is always with you..."

Everything seemed to stop and listen, a broken voice singing but still beautiful, like a music box that slows its tune until it finally stops winding down.

And when she is finished, she is crying. Lyre is asleep and the other children are lying down. Zora hugs Mag tightly before retreating to the corner to hide her tears. Harp empathizes and cannot help but follow.

"That was a nice song," Harp whispers, sitting on her knees. Zora's face flushes furiously as she hides her eye with one hand, turning away slightly.

"I-I thank you," she replies, trying to keep her voice from breaking. The eye patch Harp originally made for Ash glitters in the light of dim flames close to them.

"I've never heard it before. Where's it from?" Harp cocks her head slightly downwards and to the side.

"Ah, it's, um..." Zora twiddles her thumbs a bit, still blushing because of Harp's little gesture, "m-my father... he was a musical fellow. He wrote it for me when I was just born and would sing it to me every night to help me sleep. Back... back when he loved me. Or so I believed. It was... it was the very last song I heard before I was sent here. Even if he broke my trust, it is still a piece of my former life I hold close to my heart."

"I... I see. I have a lot of memories that I hold with me, too," Harp frowns. "One time, Ashy and I ate too many snake flakes and wound up in the hospital. We almost lost our kidneys. It was great."

Zora chuckles.

"Snake flakes? You haven't tried cobra fillet? I lost two whole toes from eating that."

Harp's eyes grow wide, sparkling like stars.

"Show me."

The long haired girl struggles with her boots, her body growing simply too weak to kick them off.

"Later, I'm afraid."

She undoes the ratty white ribbons tying up her matted sea green hair. It tumbles to the ground, long enough to make a pile. A year ago, it looked so lovely. Like a shimmering waterfall, silky and smooth.

"I have no use for these anymore. I don't know why I should care anymore, really. I didn't feel my eyeball getting kicked from my skull... I barely felt getting kicked in the face, Harp... I'm decaying. Fast."

Harp can feel her eyes welling up with tears as she reaches out to touch Zora's hair. She didn't know what to say, so it just slipped out.

"I... I think you're still so pretty."

It came out without any thought beforehand. The two girls stare at each other in a stupor, both blushing madly.

Zora just smiles after a minute, wiping away a tear.

"Well, you're lovely, yourself."

She rests her head on Harp's shoulder. Harp beams at her, ready to share another thing. Zora was pleasant to talk to, almost as much as Ash.

"I'm glad I got to meet you again. Even if it's in here. I never got to talk with you like this. We were always kept apart, like Ouro and Boros."

Zora laughs.

"The sun snake and the moon snake? They're trying to eat each other in that old myth, aren't they? Always chasing each other to create the cycle of day and night?"

"I know, but think of how rare an eclipse is... how the sun and moon finally meet and everything is completely dark, but the light slowly pours back in? It felt hopeless here, but now here's someone I know from before, and even though it's bad, everything feels okay."

Zora blinks, then gently squeezes Harp's hand.

"Everything... feels okay."

They close their eyes and sleep. As peacefully as they can manage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zora's very British, actually.
> 
> I'm currently writing an extended version of that song Zora sings and may just perform it myself ;) thank you for reading.
> 
> Some stories may be better off not knowing... Lyre's role is very big though!
> 
> But next chapter we do have a heartbreaker. stay tuned!


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